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Comment by bjornsing | Hacker News Reader

> “This is private land, access is permitted by the owner and may be withdrawn at anytime.”

I’m not a native speaker of English, but shouldn’t that be “at any time”?

I am a native speaker (of south-west English English, no less) and it does look a bit odd to me too – but apparently both are normal.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anytime

No, the dictionary lists ‘anytime’ as an adverb. Here it is used as a misspelling of ‘any’ followed by the noun ‘time’. There’s also a difference in emphasis in the pronunciation (first syllable is stressed for the adverb).

What the dictionary is saying is that 'any time' and 'anytime' are both acceptable spellings of the adverb. But 'anytime' is never an acceptable spelling of the noun phrase 'any time'.

Ah, I see, thanks.

Yes. Anytime cannot be used with “at”

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/anytime-any-time/

I also suspect that most would always write “any time”

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anytime

>First Known Use

>1822, in the meaning defined above

While it certainly looks wrong, it is correct.

"anytime" means "at any time". Saying "at anytime" would be like saying "at at any time"

Good point and yet another indication that the sign was created by a numbskull.

It should, and the whole thing is a run-on sentence anyway. Par for the course from the British school system.

Could have used anywhen to freak people out.

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